Life Lessons
by Agoleiwo
Summary: Finn is care free, but what happens to him when certain things are told to him by forces previously unknown to all of Ooo?
1. Chapter 1

**So, this is my first Fanfic . . . that I've done alone! :D So anyway; don't hate, just read and relate!**

Finn was sitting on a large tree stump, thinking about why he felt so empty. "Why?" Finn asked no one in particular. He looked up at a tree to see a small caterpillar munching on one of its leaves. "Hey there little guy," Finn said as he crept closer to the oblivious creature. "It must be easy to live the way you do, not having to think about who's where or what's when, only having to eat. And then you get to turn into something beautiful like a butterfly or moth," Finn looked at the slowly setting sun, "I wish I was a caterpillar." "Finn?! Finn! Come on man, where are you?" Finn looked up, his train of thought broken by the sound of Jake's voice. "There you are! Dang bro, I couldn't find you anywhere. What uh, what are ya' doing out here?" Finn sighed and turned around, saying nothing, only staring at Jake with a look on his face that said 'help me.' "Um, are you okay dude, you look kind of . . . not so good," Jake asked now becoming increasingly worried. And Jake was right, he didn't look good, in fact Finn looked terrible; his skin was of a sickly pallor, the hair underneath his hat was completely disheveled, and his eyes looked as if he hadn't slept in days. "Oh yeah, I'm fine," Finn wasn't even looking at Jake, more like at the air around him. "Okay . . . well din-din's ready, are you hungry?" Jake hoped that the thought of food might get Finn out of his funk. "It's a new recipe, how does Lasagna sound?" Jake asked with a big smile on his face. "Huh? Oh yeah, whatevs," Finn had taken to looking at the ground under his feet. "Is there something you need to tell me about? 'Cuz you know I'm always here for you, right?" "Yeah sure, look I don't want to talk about anything right now okay?," Finn began to walk away, not hearing his brother's shouting for him to come back behind him and slowly disappeared into the forest surrounding the glade they were in. 'Man, I've never seen Finn act so mopey before,' Jake thought as he started walking back towards the house. 'I'm sure he'll be all right, he knows how to handle himself. Maybe he'll be better if he has some time to himself.'

Finn, walking to nowhere in particular, was staring at a small, tear soaked piece of paper: a drawing of Flame Princess. 'Oh glob, why did it have to be her?' thought Finn. He remembered how happy he had been when they first started going out: life had been good for Finn during that time; they would walk together and Finn would show her all of the things that he thought were cool. But there had been one thing that Finn had buried in the back of his mind: she was a fire elemental. The day that he doubted it would work between them was the same day that he crammed the thought deep into the confines of his mind, into the same place that nightmares and other terrible memories could be found. He had done so unconsciously, wanting so much to be happy for once. It was on the day that Flame princess almost destroyed all of Ooo, after he had saved her, that he had thought that it was over, that his hopes of being happy would be destroyed forever. But then he found out that they could kiss through things, and all was well again. They had continued doing this for some time, all the while Finn secretly thinking that it was ridiculous. He would have told her that, but two things had stopped him from doing so; the fact that he didn't want to hurt her feelings, and his incessant longing for happiness. 'Maybe it will get better someday' he had told himself. Much to his dismay, however, it never got better; in fact it had only gotten worse. Thanks to Jake's lack of communication on the subject of growing up, Finn never learned about the many changes that he would be going through at his age. This began to tear Finn apart on the inside, his newly developed wants subconsciously making him stress out, even at times of happiness, such as his birthday that had passed only a few days ago. It was this unknown force that had made him finally decide that kissing through rocks was stupid, when he told her this, she had gone into a rage, barely allowing Finn to escape with his life. He hadn't told anyone what had happened, not even Jake; he thought that if he kept it all a secret, the pain would go away. But it never did, it grew with every passing day, until Finn ended up sitting in a glade, talking to a caterpillar and asking himself 'why?' Why was there no one that he could be with normally? Yes, he understood that Princess Bubblegum was a candy person, but the worst thing that might happen if they were to interact would be that he might get a little sticky. But she had turned him down countless times, even on the day before his birthday. Jake had even gone to great lengths to help him out, not knowing that his choice would later make Finn more depressed than ever before.

Finn stopped to see where he had ended up. He looked around, noticing that he was familiar with his surroundings. "Oh yeah, this is where I helped those two spiders out with their relationship" Finn said aloud as a smile found its way to his face. He was glad he was able to help people like that; he couldn't stand seeing people in distress. But then he glanced down at the picture of Flame Princess, and the small amount of happiness vanished, replaced by anger "How can I help other people with relationships, but then completely mess up with my own?!"

With that, he crumpled up the sketch of Flame Princess and threw it as far as he could into the forest surrounding the path he was walking on. "Ha! Take that Flame Princes!" Finn was smiling at the thought of being over her, but it didn't last long. "Wait," Finn fell into a cold sweat, "that was the only picture I had of her!" Finn ran into the bushes to see if he could find it. He was crawling on his hands and knees, searching frantically for the small piece of paper that was his only tie to the days in which he had been happy. He was just about to give up and had tears in his eyes when he heard a rustle to the left. He heard a growl and reached for his sword, as he realized it wasn't there, he stopped and tried to think of a plan. When he couldn't come up with one, he just tensed up and waited for whatever was to come.

**I know it's a little short, but I promise they'll get longer and better!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, this one is too short to be a good chapter, but it's a build up. The next one is going to start the good writing. Sorry for this one though.**

As Finn pretty much prepared to die, the growling became louder and whatever it was pounced onto him, knocking him over on his back. With his eyes closed tightly shut, he thought it was the end. "Go on, do it already!" Finn shouted at whatever it was on top of him. "Wow, you're weenie," a familiar voice said to him. "W-wuh?," Finn blinked open his eyes, only to see a horrific, demonic creature; "Aaaaaaaahhh!," Finn screamed in terror, trying his best to squirm away from out beneath the nightmarish being.  
The thing on top of Finn started to laugh however, and this time Finn barely opened his eyes just enough to see what exactly it thing was.  
"Ugh, Marceline! What the heck?!," Finn yelled angrily. Marceline, who was crying from how hard she was laughing moments ago, wiped away her tears, "oh man, you should have seen look on your face." She got off of Finn and helped him up. "Oh whatever, you would have done the same thing if you were as scared as I was," Finn said as he brushed himself off. "Uh, no; I don't get scared," Marceline retorted with a smirk on her face. "Whatever."  
"So, what are you doing out here so late?,"asked Marceline, looking towards the night sky, "I thought I was the only vampire around here," Marceline smiled as she said this, showing off her fangs in the process. "Um, I was just taking a walk," Finn lied. "At eleven 'o clock at night?," Marceline asked, looking straight at Finn as if she knew he was lying. "Oh yeah, I always like to take walks this late, the night air is nice and cool, it's really relaxing," Finn was desperately trying to convince her that he was just out for a walk, but his body betrayed him.  
"Oh my gosh, Finn, are you shivering?!," Marceline flew over to Finn and hugged him tightly, trying to make it so that he wouldn't freeze to death. But it didn't work, her undead body gave off no discernible heat and Finn began to go limp in her arms. "Finn, listen to me! Don't go to sleep, please," she began to fly towards the Candy Kingdom, which was the closest place she knew of that would have some warmth. As she approached the kingdom, she decided it would be best if she went straight to Princess Bubblegum. She flew right into Bubblegum's room through an open window. "Quick Bonnie, we've got to get Finn some help, stat!," Marceline said frantically.  
Princess Bubblegum, however, barely noticed what Marceline had said. She had been laying in her bed, relaxing, after an extremely stressing meeting with the Lemongrabs. She had to wear her formal attire, so had thought it would be a good idea to take them off and just lay down. Now, she was standing up, desperately trying to wrap her blankets around her so that Marceline or Finn wouldn't see.  
"What are you. . ." Marceline noticed Bubblegum and her fruitless efforts to try to cover herself up. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were- Hey! you're wearing your underwear and stuff, stop freaking out and help me with Finn!" "What do you mean help you with F-" Bubblegum notices the slightly blue hero. "Oh my gosh, Finn! Guards, take him to the infirmary now!" as the bananas took Finn off to the infirmary, Marceline glanced at the princess, "You know, you really need to calm down. I thought you were in your birthday suit or something like that." "Marceline, I did not know that Finn was unconscious, if I had known he wasn't able to see me I probably wouldn't have freaked out the way I did," Bubblegum was putting on a gown that was only slightly more comfortable than the clothes she had on before, 'I need some new clothes' she thought. "Oh so what you're saying is that you wouldn't care if I saw you naked?," Marceline said jokingly. "Look, Marceline, you and I both know that he probably wouldn't be able to handle that, he might actually explode." "Yeah, well don't you think one of us should teach him about. . . things? It's not like Jake is going to anytime soon." " Don't you dare do anything without my say, I've been observing him and how he works, but I need more information. Normal humans are very rare, he IS the last one." "Yeah well I might not have been one for a long time, but I DID used to be a human. I think I might know more than you do," Marceline says with her hands on her hips. "The best information is collected firsthand." Marceline waves it off; "That's so stupid and you know it." "Whatever, Marceline. Let's just go see if Finn will be okay," Bubblegum says. "Alright, but this conversation isn't over." And with that, they both walked off to the infirmary.


	3. Chapter 3

**So, I seem to be averaging around 1,200 words . . . so get used to that :D**

As Bubblegum walked and Marceline floated down the hall towards the infirmary, Bubblegum an emergency phone from off the hospital wall and called Jake. "Hello? Yes, hello Jake, this Princess Bubblegum. - - - Yes well I'm afraid now is not the time; you see, Finn is here and he is hypothermic, I suggest that you get here as soon as possible, we may need your help." Jake was a bit groggy, but he came to his senses and hung up the phone at the sound of the word hypothermic. "Oh no, why did I let him stay out there? This is all my fault!" And so, with the belief that it was his fault that Finn was in danger, he stretched to the Candy Kingdom as fast as he could. Upon reaching the Kingdom gates, he pushed the banana guards right out of his way, and ran to the infirmary. He burst through the doors and greeted the two ladies standing near Finn's bed with a frantic, "Where?! Where is my bro at!?" "Jake, please, you must calm down," Bubblegum was trying to keep him from causing a scene for the rest of the patients in the hospital, "Finn's right here and, fortunately, he is stable." "Oh good, I thought he was in serious trouble. "Well, he was _going_ to be in serious trouble, if it wasn't for Marceline for finding him, he probably would have been dead right now." Bubblegum said this with a nod towards Marceline. Marceline was trying to hide a smile, "oh, it was nothing, he kind of just fell into my arms, and I was going towards the Candy Kingdom anyway." "Uh huh," Jake didn't believe Marceline, "either way, thank you for helping him." "You're welcome Jake," Marceline looked out a window towards the night sky and the moon that was full and hanging low amidst the stars, "well; I wish I could stay and see if he's okay, but I have to go to a concert, I'll see you later." Jake and Bubblegum waved to her goodbye, and turned their attention to Finn. "So when is he going to fully recover?" Jake asked Bubblegum. She looked at Finn, "hmm, I am not sure, but I think it could take a couple days, it looks like there was something else wrong with him other than the cold." Jake's features furrowed into a thinking position, huh, that's weird, I don't remember him saying anything about stuff tha-" at that very moment, Jake remembered how distraught Finn had looked when he had found him in the forest. "What do you think was affecting him?" Jake asked Bubblegum. "Well, to be honest, I think it was just stress. Lots and LOTS of stress. I can't possibly tell what it was that stressed him out so much though." Bubblegum began to write on a clipboard that was attached to the hospital bed Finn was laying in. "Alright, I'm going to go see Lady. I'll see you later Princess Bubblegum!" Jake waved to her as he stretched away to look for Lady Rainicorn. "Okay then, stay safe!" she called to Jake. She was studying the tests that she had done to Finn before Jake had gotten there. "Hmm," she was tapping a pencil on the edge of the bed, "definitely stress." She had told Jake that there was no way that she could possibly tell what exactly it was that had caused Finn all of the stress, but she had lied. "This is going to be the perfect time to test my new gizmo!" Bubblegum smiled to herself, remembering her first kind of contraption that read minds; it only had the capacity to see if someone was lying or not, but this machine was something new. Using a new algorithm, she had come up with a way to literally see memories and thoughts of other people. "Oh Finn, don't worry; I'm only doing this to help you." She was talking to the unconscious Finn more or less to convince herself that there was nothing wrong with what she was about to do. Sure, she was going to look into the hero's mind and possibly see things that he would not want anyone else to know, but it was necessity that she know what had made Finn grow weak, making him more susceptible to the cold. As Bubblegum put a helmet onto Finn, she had one of the nurses that were standing by switch the machine on. "Okay, this is it, are you recording?" she asked the nurse who had the camera running as documentation. Once the nurse nodded, Bubblegum put a second helmet onto her own head. "Okay, here goes!" the princess flicked a switch, and she immediately saw the hero's mind. She had made it so that certain kinds of mementoes would be color coded. Happy memories were colored yellow, things that had gotten him angry would be red, sad memories would be colored blue. Bubblegum had resolved to look for only blue and red memories and thoughts. Right away, there was a flood of yellow memories, "Must all be for his sixteenth birthday," Bubblegum said to herself. As she looked through the plethora of colors that was Finn's memories and sub conscience, she finally came across a blue one. "Aha!" she basically 'clicked' on the memory, opening it as if it was a file on a computer. Once she had opened up the memory, she gasped, "Oh no, this can't be good." The memory was of Finn explaining how he thought their relationship wouldn't work out. "Hmm, so they aren't together anymore. Perhaps I should keep this information to myself." Bubblegum thought it would be best due to the fact that if she told anyone, then she would have to explain how she had found it. "Well, I got what I came for, I suppose I should get out of Finn's head now," she said this almost sadly, liking the fact that she could, technically, look at all of the things that made him tick_. No Bonnibel, that would be immoral_ she thought to herself. As she prepared to power the machine off, she noticed a group of memories and thoughts that didn't match any profile that she had assigned; they were colored jet black, and were faded at the edges. "What the, what are these?" she asked herself. She didn't really want to pry, but her curiosity got the better of her. As she chose the group of memories and thoughts, the screen on her helmet dimmed ever so slightly. "Why can't I open it up?" the black thoughts weren't allowing her to open them up. Finally, after typing in a reroute, the contents of the thoughts came to light. "What In the world? . . . Agh!" Bubblegum's helmet broke, erupting in a shower of sparks. Bubblegum fell backwards in the attempt to get it off in time. She was lucky; the helmet broke her fall, and shattered upon impact. Bubblegum's head was smoking, and her eyes were shut, burned to gather from the heat of the helmet's failure. "Nurse," it was all that the princess could muster up the strength to say. The nurse put Bubblegum onto a medical stretcher and hurried her off to an operation room, while a good many other nurses took the equipment off of Finn, leaving him there, slowly recovering from the stress and hypothermia.


	4. Chapter 4

**Slightly longer this time. . . Yay!**

Her hands worked slowly yet surely, doing a job that needed the utmost concentration. If she messed up now, her beloved leader would be scarred for life, never being able to see the wonderful sights, or experience the world's lights, ever again. Sweating profusely under the heat of the light, and the pressure she was under tonight, the nurse that was assigned to save Princess Bubblegum's sight and face had others wiping her face; lest there be a break in concentration or contamination. Once the vision was restored, the nurse began to apply candy matter in order to reverse the damage done by the faulty contraption that Bubblegum had tried to use. _What had gone wrong?_ the nurse had wondered, but it was not her place to ask questions, only to help those in need without question. Now, beset with the task of helping the princess herself, she had to do the job with extreme care; it wasn't as if she would have done less with another patient, it was just that there were so many rumors going around about what had caused the malfunction. One went even so far as to say that the princess had lost her ingenuity, downright making the faulty device just so that she could try to take her life because she could not stand the stress of ruling over the Candy Kingdom anymore. _But that can't be right, right_? The nurse thought, that is, until she heard that someone thought that Finn himself had shorted the device because he was too awesome for it. _Yes, that one makes the most sense_. As she finished smoothing the candy matter over the deep melt marks in Princess Bubblegum's face, she turned away from the table to let the others know that she was finished, and that the operation was a success. Everyone was cheering at the news, everyone but Bubblegum herself. This wasn't just because the nurses had put anesthesia into her system, (that may have made it so that she was numb and could not move, but it did not put her to sleep) no, she was not cheering or even feeling good about it because she was thinking about what she had seen in Finn's mind. Throughout the entire operation, she had been dwelling on that horrible thought; so sinister it had made her machine short circuit. As soon as she could, she thought, she had to prepare for what was to come.

Meanwhile, far from the Candy Kingdom

Marceline was flying high above the ground, playing with the clouds as she went through them. She was laughing from the sheer fun that she was having, "hahaha, whew! Man that was fun. But where is this darn concert?" Marceline was horrible with directions. "Hmm, is it that way? Or . . . maybe it's back over there? Ugh!" she threw the map that she was trying to decipher away from her, and watched as it got taken up by the wind and flew through a cloud near her. The map created a hole that gradually got bigger and bigger as the cloud began to dissipate; through this, Marceline saw what looked like a giant firefly with a pulsating light down on the ground. "Whoa, what is THAT?" she asked aloud. Not knowing what else to do, she decided to go to the light and check it out. As she flew closer, Marceline began to hear the music of the concert, "right on! Looks like that dumb map put me in the right direction after all." Once on the ground, Marceline not only noticed the awesome music that was playing, but she was staring in awe at her surroundings. The concert was set up in a clearing of a dense forest, but there were many things that added to the sheer awesomeness of it all. The ground was black; it was not burned, not painted, but it was as if the grass and dirt had been turned black, now the color through and through. There were also the things that were making the light: giant, towering pillars which came out of the ground in a way that looked like the earth itself had expelled them, they went high into the sky and were bent at their topmost part, with the other end entering the ground somewhere else. Upon closer inspection, Marceline realized the ground had wires of all colors running through it at random places all over the clearing. "Wow, these decorations are awesome," she looked over at some other attendees of the concert. "Hey! Hey you!" she was waving at a halfcat-man. Catching his attention, he looked over at Marceline and pointed to himself while making a questioning look. "Yeah, you! Isn't this concert awesome?" she yelled over the extremely loud, heavy metal music that the band was playing. The halfcat-man nodded in agreement. "Do you know who did the decorations?" Marceline asked, hoping someone would know. When the halfcat-man shook his head no, she turned her attention back towards the band. She loved the music, and was banging her head to it when the band stopped playing and asked if there was anyone out in the audience who wanted to try to play a game. With Marceline's interest caught, her ears angled more acutely than they already were towards the stage. The main singer had a deep, raspy voice, "the person who wins the jam off, which will be determined by the audience's cheers, will get a perfect set of new amps, created by our very own tinker. SO! Anyone want to play?" Cries came from all around the stage as waves of contestant wannabes rushed to it. Marceline just flew up and over the crowd and onto the stage. "Well, well, well, looks like we got ourselves a little lady, what is it hun' you want an autograph?" the stage hand was burly, and had scars all over his face and arms. Marceline looked at him as if he had two heads, "Uh, no!" she kicked the stage hand right in the crotch, making him double over in pain and fall off the stage into the marauding crowd of fans. She walked up to the main singer and showed him her axe-bass. "I'd like to enter as bass please," Marceline told him. "Wow, looks like you got here just in time; you're going to be the last person to be entered into the contest," the main singer smiled at Marceline, revealing a mouth of silver-plated teeth. "Cool, when do I start?" The main singer pointed to a group of people, each with their own instruments, "It's a band tournament. Group up with those guys, and if your band wins, then we'll give each of you a pair of Pristine amps. Oh and buy the way, tell your group that they are up first." Marceline floated towards the group, and realized the halfcat-man was among them. "Hey kitty, what are you?" The halfcat-man pulled a microphone from his pocket, "vocalist," he said into the microphone, his voice was more of a whisper that much else, but Marceline could work with that. "Okay, cool. Hey you two," she pointed to the drummer and guitarist, "all you guys gotta do is go with the flow 'kay?" They both nodded in agreement. "Okay then, we're up!" As they all took to the stage, Marceline began to play a long, low, slow bass solo. The halfcat-man opened his mouth to sing, but that is as far he got; the entire stage began to shake, and the ground below the audience broke, letting smog out and making them fall into cracks. There was mass confusion below Marceline, and the halfcat-man waved a good bye to her and jumped away, onto a truck that sped away. "Oh my God, what is going on?!" She would have to wait for an answer though, because the ground in the area was imploding, and she had to get away. Marceline flew up to try to get away, but the air was being sucked down, into the cracks now, and she had to fight to escape. Finally, after much straining, she was able to get high enough to be safe. Looking behind her, all she could see of the concert was fire that was being emitted from the cracks now. "I have to tell Bonnie about this," for the first time in centuries, Marceline was terrified.


End file.
